Andor: Season 2: Episode 9: Welcome to the Rebellion
What is it ? : The news of the Ghorman Massacre gets back to Coruscant, and Mon Mothma and Bail Organa meet in shock, as they watch the Senator from Ghorman is arrested in the senate and dragged off by Stormtroopers. Mon says they must do something, and Bail agrees but says that then she must leave, he will arrange for people to get her off Coruscant, he says he must remain, he also warns her that his people have found his office to be bugged.
Andor arrives on Coruscant and Kleya tasks him with rescuing Mon Mothma, giving him an identity as a reporter to get him into the Senate.
Mothma and her aide scan her office for bugs and locate one, while he continues to scan the office, she leaves to practice her speech, and encounters Luthen Rael. Asking how he found her, he tells her that her aide works for him, and she reveals that she is more afraid of Luthen than anyone, remembering how quickly he decided that her childhood friend, Tay Kolma, was a danger and had him killed. Luthen warns her that Bail's extraction team has been corrupted and he will send an agent.
She returns to her office, offended at the betrayal of her aide, and fires him.
The next day, Andor enters the Senate and meets with Mothma's aide who guides him through the building, as Mothma prepares to give her speech. She is not to be allowed to speak, but Bail uses emergency rules to give her the floor.
She speaks, telling the Senate that a monster is stalking the republic which will destroy everything, and that monster is Chancellor Palpatine. She leaves the senate chamber, and the Imperial Security Bureau issues an arrest warrant for her, but she is met by Andor who identifies himself, leading her back through the building. But they encounter the team sent by Bail, but one of it's members is an Imperial Agent. Andor guns her down, much to the shock of Mothma.
They flee through the building, heading for where the vehicles await, and they encounter Mothma's driver, Andor asks her if he can be trusted and she tells him that the driver is an ISB Agent, so Andor momentarily distracts him before also gunning him down. They board her Senate speeder and leave the area.
Later they arrive at the safe house where Andor and Bix once stayed, Andor is told he will return to Yavin, but Mothma will be escorted by a Rebel Squadron to create the narrative they need.
He returns to Yavin, and tells Bix that it's over, he can't keep his activities up as they're breaking him, as all he wants is her. The next morning she is gone, leaving him a recording telling him that she told him once before that everything was worth it if they won, and she can't be the reason for him giving up, so she is leaving.
He rushes into the base, but finds all the transports gone, but is told the KX droid he brought back has been repaired, but they aren't sure if it will remain hostile. So they reactivate the droid which he holds a blaster on it, and K-2SO awakens after some energy surges, and states, "Hello. If I've offended you, I apologize. If not, I'd appreciate you pointing that elsewhere!" . . . .
High Points : Another stunning episode, the tension as they escape from the Senate building is absolutely fantastic, so many good lines and scenes throughout.
Genevieve O'Reilly has done such a fantastic job throughout this series, but this is very much her high point. The way she has portrayed the shock as violence erupts around her, the disbelief in everyone around her seemingly betraying her, even though while they aren't keeping to her standards, they are doing their best to preserve her and those standards, as they represent what they want to bring back to the Republic.
Low Points : My only problem with this one is that it doesn't end where it feels it should, when Mothma is safe and Andor has it explained that while he's done the job they required of him, it will never be told as there is a more political narrative they need to spin instead, feels like the natural ending point of this episode. But instead, because of the year time skips they do every 3 episodes, they need to put some other things in place, with Bix leaving and K-2SO being activated.
These extra endings are acceptable at the end of a story, whether it be a movie or a series, but because of these self imposed time breaks, they've added them here, and it just feels clumsy, as there must have been better ways of building them into the story.
So what do you really think ? : After the last episode, I didn't expect something quite so amazing, but here we go, 2 episodes right next to each other which are perhaps two of the greatest Star Wars stories ever told. Absolutely astounding.
Final Words : So, three episodes to go for Andor, and we know which characters are seen in Rogue One. So the question is, do the rest just not show up, or are their fates set in these last three episodes. Bix, Wilmon, Kleya, Luthen, Vel, Dedra? Some of these still seem set to face off against one another, with Dedra's obssession in locating Axis, who we know to be Luthen, will probably tie together her fate with that of Luthen, Kleya and possibly even Vel. But that all remains to be seen, as so much seems to have happened, and I'm not entirely sure where the series has left to go, but I don't think it has a happy ending intended for any of the characters.
Score : 9.75/10
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